After Iraq, Afghan pullout worries India

The Indian foreign office got busy on Wednesday studying impact of the United States President Barrack Obama ending the 7- year American combat mission in Iraq and vowing to disengage from Afghanistan as well from next July.

Officials said, India is engaged in rebuilding the war- ravaged Afghanistan and hence significant is his reaffirmation to begin transferring security responsibility to Afghans after nearly ten years of the US presence. " But make no mistake: this transition will begin, because open- ended war serves neither our interests nor of the Afghanis," he said in a prime- time address from the Oval Office on Tuesday.

He said that the United States has met its responsibility to Iraq and that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home, be they weak economy or other domestic issues. He was always convinced that getting into Iraq was a mistake in the first place.

Over the last decade, " we have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas," Obama said. " And so at this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy and grit and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad." The American forces in Afghanistan " will be in place for a limited time" to give Afghans the chance to build their government and armed forces," the American president said.